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Boulder County history: Women found math careers at the 'Bureau'

Early days of computer programming recalled

By Carol Taylor

Boulder County History

Posted:
08/14/2016 09:21:24 AM MDT

Updated:
08/14/2016 10:24:16 AM MDT

Catherine Candelaria working as a mathematician and computer programmer at Boulder's National Bureau of Standards in the 1960s. (National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Institute for Telecommunication Sciences / Courtesy Photo)

Carol Taylor (Boulder County history)

Janet Falcon assumed she would become a teacher. One of the few female mathematics students at the University of Colorado in the late 1950s, she even did her practice teaching at Boulder High School.

However, an unexpected opportunity presented itself and led her to a long and satisfying career at the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder.

In the spring of 1959, before graduation, she heard they were hiring at "the Bureau." Intrigued, she filled out the paperwork and took the required tests.

Afterward, she shared the good news with her classmates. The conversation went something like this:

"I got a job!" she said.

"What's the job?" they asked.

"Computer programmer," she replied.

"What's that?" they inquired.

"I don't know!" she answered.

So began Falcon's 33-year career as a mathematician at Boulder's first big science laboratory.

Vi Raben also became a mathematician at the bureau, during the same time. While she was in college the typical career options for young women were nursing, teaching or secretarial work, Raben said. No one ever heard of computer programming. Raben came to Boulder through a summer program to attract NBS employees in 1965.

Students could request a job anywhere in the country, Raben recalled. She chose Colorado and was placed at NBS. Hired for a permanent job after she graduated from college in the midwest, Raben imagined that she would do it for one year. She stayed her entire career.

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She worked on cutting edge sunspot research in a group at the World Data Center, headed up by the late physicist J. Virginia Lincoln.

"The World Data Center was all women," Raben said.

As programmers, they created equations to solve problems in the field of radio communications. They wrote programming steps on a sheet similar to graph paper. Those were turned over to keypunch operators who created punch cards. Sometimes they punched their own cards.

Large metal trays containing decks of cards were carried to the centrally located IBM 650 computer and fed into the card reader machine, Falcon explained. As there was one computer for the whole bureau, they were allowed only an hour of time, from noon-1 p.m. Variables and parameters were adjusted to find the solutions for the projects.

The pay was better than teaching, even though you had to work in the summers. The government had great benefits, such as vacation and sick time, and health care. An onsite nurse provided regular physical exams, vaccinations, and hearing, vision and blood tests.

Neither woman felt special for working outside the home. They needed to work to pay their bills. When they had a baby, maternity leave was 90 days, unpaid. Babysitters were found and sometimes shared among female employees.

"We knew each other. Then we went home to our families. Life was full," Falcon said.

Both chuckled when they recalled that women were required to wear skirts to work. Many let their objections to this policy be known. Some of the young women had to reach up to storage bins and thought slacks would be more modest and practical. Over the years, the dress code was revised so that pants for women were allowed, much to everyone's relief.

Falcon was in a group with about a dozen other computer programmers.

"There were lots of women working there," Falcon said. She emphasized that women were paid well and treated with respect.

The environment was collaborative, she said. Lunchtime was a social affair with the women, and men, eating, talking, sharing their programming challenges, and offering possible solutions to one another.

Visiting scientists came in from all over the world. It was thrilling to be working on the latest science and there was always fresh technology to master.

"The whole computer world was changing and everyone was talking about what was new," Raben remembered.

"It's been a real ride, watching the computers change." Falcon said. "It was a fun job."

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